In the earliest glint of light I turned over, desperate for a wee.
‘Bucket in the corner,’ Jenna mumbled.
I found the bucket, but not before standing in something soft and smelly. The previous owners weren’t strong on household cleaning.
Standing at one window gazing blearily into the thin grey misty light, I thought I heard the blast of a horn, far in the distance. And was that the sound of horses? I couldn’t tell and I wasn’t going out to look. I snuggled down alongside Jenna’s warm body.
The next thing I knew, sun shining through the window had lit the room with stripy bars of light. The rest were all awake. Jenna had woken the Petas, moved the bucket behind the partition and stretched some sacking in front to give a little privacy.
As my mind moved into gear, I felt a shock of fear, remembering the vicious animals outside the door. What could we do? Nothing, I thought. We were the dogs’ next meal.
‘Trapped,’ said Jack.
‘There’s not enough water to make any more porridge,’ Mary moaned.
I clenched my teeth. Did they have to say that?
‘Easy,’ Jenna said quietly. ‘They only came here to help us.’
I muttered a few words and Jen poked me.
‘Can’t you suggest something then?’ I mouthed at her.
‘Ok,’ she said.
I was startled, wondering what she’d thought up.
Jenna went to the back of the house. ‘We have to kill one of them,’ she said loudly, and everyone turned to her. ‘If we can kill the big one then the rest might clear off.’
‘How?’ Jack sounded as though the idea was useless. ‘Unless you’ve found a gun there, Jen.’
‘No, just these iron things.’ Jenna held up an iron rod. ‘Maybe they used them to poke the fire. Alvin – any ideas?’
I smiled. Jenna didn’t usually ask me for a plan unless she had planted an idea in my mind. ‘Give it a go,’ I said, getting up. ‘Jack, heat up that fire, we’re going to barbecue some wolf.’
I said ‘wolf’, in case we did kill it and had to eat it. I didn’t think that Mary would be too keen on eating someone’s pet doggy, even if it had tried to savage us all. Jack piled wood on to the fire and I put the end of the iron rod into the flames. Soon it glowed a murderous red.
‘Right, Kan and Van, you two pull open the door. When woolfy throws himself at me, I stick him with the poker.’
‘It will never work,’ said Jack. I gave him a dog-like snarl and he said, ‘Sorry.’
I didn’t think it would work either but if Jenna thought we should try, I was going to do it.
‘Ready?’ Van and Kan stood by the door. I counted to three. Van heaved the table away. Kan pulled the door open. I gave a yell and charged forwards holding the heated iron bar. I tripped and sprawled out into the mud and worse.
‘Alvin,’ screamed Jenna, Mary, and Jack together. The Petas just laughed. The dogs had gone.
Bodies
-4-
I picked myself up and looked around, nothing. The rest joined me and we walked slowly down the muddy lane between the houses. Ready to run back into the house. No dogs. I thought I could hear sounds of barking way off in the distance. I also thought I heard screams but maybe I was imagining it.
‘Why they go.’ Kan sniffed the air as though he might smell them.
There was a smell of something but was it dogs?
I told them about the horn, the noise I had heard in the early morning. ‘And I thought I heard horses in the distance.’
‘Could be someone is hunting them and that’s why they left,’ Jack said. ‘The dogs must have belonged to whoever lived here.’
‘Nice pets.’ Van stepped to one side, avoiding what the animals had left behind.
‘Not pets – they probably used the dogs for their own hunting.’ Jack was full of information.
Van and Kan disappeared between two broken down shacks. One of them gave a shout and reappeared.
‘I think we’ve found the people.’ Van waved us towards him. He held up his hand as we got nearer. ‘It’s not very nice.’ He stood aside to let us pass.
Behind the building, on an area of open moor, stood a graveyard. A few broken crosses were scratched with names, no dates. In the middle a shallow pit had been dug, not deep enough to hide the pile of uncovered bodies.
We stood in silence. The dogs had been at work here.
‘They must have died some time ago,’ said Jack.
‘How you know that?’ asked Kan.
‘There’s not much smell.’ Jack sniffed. ‘They only really smell when …’
‘JACK,’ shouted Jenna. ‘No need for details. Shouldn’t we cover them up?’
Jenna took a step forward but Mary held her back.
‘Wait. Don’t go near them.’ Mary looked anxiously towards the bodies. ‘Something’s killed them all. Maybe it was just some fight between the villages, but why have they put the bodies here and then left? If they lost some battle wouldn’t the people who’d won have taken over the village, why would they take the trouble to pile up the dead and then leave?’
‘Some disease, most likely,’ said Jack and that stopped us all.
‘What disease would wipe them all out?’ I asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ said Mary, looking at Jack.
I could tell they had an idea. Why didn’t they want to talk about it? By then we were all backing away from the pile of bodies.
‘I think we should get out of here, in case the dogs return,’ I said.
‘Wait.’ Mary held up her hands. ‘If we go down to the next village, we look pretty strange. You and Jenna probably look like you could live in an old place like this, but us four don’t. We’ve got modern gear and I’m not sure what your T-shirt says …’
‘It’s Polish,’ said Van. ‘Means don’t come near me or I’ll bite you.’
‘I think the lion’s mouth gives it away even if you don’t understand it,’ I laughed.
‘Anyway,’ Mary went on. ‘If we turn up looking like this then …’ Mary stopped and I wondered what she was going to say.
‘There are clothes left in several of the houses.’ Jenna pointed at the nearest one. ‘They’re pretty rough but I guess that’s what they wear here.’
I heard Jack muttering something about whether they were safe and Mary saying they would be ’cos they’d been left there for quite a long time. It didn’t make sense to me but I wanted to get on so we went into the houses and started sharing out the leftover clothes. Strange – I looked better after I’d put on some sort of tunic. Even the old boots I found were better than my moccasins. Van and Kan wouldn’t swap their trainers but Mary persuaded them to rub a bit of dirt into them.
‘Look like a band of yokels,’ said Jack.
‘Perfect,’ replied Mary, but I thought we still all looked a little odd.
‘Come on. If we’re going on to the next village we need to get started.’ I led them back up the track and we hurried towards the stone circle again.
The dark ring of stones cast shadows reaching across the flat rock in the middle. Was that used for sacrifices? Human sacrifices? I shuddered, imagining a body held down. I imagined the screams.
Jack tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped.
‘You’re sure we should head for another village?’ Jack said quietly.
‘What choice do we have?’ I said, feeling a bit stupid at being startled.
‘This disease may be everywhere. It might not be safe.’ Although Jack tried not to let the others hear, they all gathered round.
‘Jack, we can’t find any tunnel, there’s no way we can get out of here. We’ve no food, we have to get off the moor.’ I pointed to the clouds. ‘There’s no shelter. We won’t surviv
e out here.’
‘We might not survive in the next village,’ Mary said, staring at the ground.
‘But Alvin’s right,’ Jenna said firmly, ‘we have to go on.’
‘Have you any idea what happened to the last villagers?’ I was still looking at the clouds and wondering if Jack or Mary would tell me what they really believed.
‘It must be some sort of infection.’ Mary looked up. ‘I’m not sure what.’
I turned to her and caught the slight shake of her head as she mouthed ‘no’ at me. So whatever they thought this was, I knew it must be pretty awful. Jenna saw what was going on.
‘Jen?’ I wanted her advice.
Jenna shrugged, ‘No choice, as you said. We’re following Zach. He’s probably just as bad as this disease thing.’
‘Maybe not,’ muttered Jack.
Jenna went on: ‘Even so, I think Zach will make more trouble. He tried to kill us so he’ll think we’re after him.’
‘Don’t care if I never see him again,’ I said. ‘But come on.’
Kan and Van had already started down the hill into the valley. They’d stopped to drink beside a stream. There were a few live sheep but a lot more dead carcasses.
‘Didn’t want to wait ’til we were down below them,’ shouted Van.
We followed and soon we were walking beside a stream. It felt familiar.
‘Is this the stream …’ I started.
‘That Zach pushed me into,’ finished Jack. ‘I think it is.’
We walked on. I thought about that first day when we had set off with Miss Tregarthur on the school hike. I couldn’t help feeling that she still had something to do with whatever was happening now.
‘Do you think sheep get this disease?’ I asked Mary as we passed more dead animals, but she had no answer.
Further down we could see a small hut. As we neared it I thought it looked like the sort of place a shepherd might use. The door was hanging open. There didn’t seem to be anyone around.
Van looked inside and backed away. ‘Don’t go in there.’ He made a slicing motion across his neck. We all saw the body.
Had this disease wiped out everyone? But we had seen lights, so someone must be out there. We plodded up another hill towards the place Jack and Mary said they had seen the village. But if this was a different time, would there be anything there now? The clouds still looked threatening above us.
We started to notice more trees, much larger than the stunted twisted trunks on the open moorland. A track led into the wood and we followed it. We heard a bark. That made us stop and close into a huddle near one of the trees.
‘Sounds more like an ordinary dog,’ said Jack.
‘Move on.’ I stepped back onto the track.
Further along we smelt burning wood and I saw a wisp of smoke rising above the trees. The track became wider, opening out on to a flat grassy area. Ahead we saw houses. Some were similar to the last village – stone walls and a straw roof. Others were wooden and looked as though they were only just standing up. Further away there was a grander house, but the rest of this village looked very poor.
We went on, keeping as quiet as possible. Between the first two houses a gate blocked the way, but it was only held closed by a loop of rope. Kan lifted the rope and pulled the gate open, it squealed on rusting hinges. The noise startled me, everything had been so quiet. Pulling the gate closed we walked on. We only made a few steps.
‘Halt.’ Five men armed with what looked like farming tools stepped out from behind one of the houses. Most of them were dressed in rough smocks with ragged leather boots. They were all bearded and none of them looked too clean. One wore a tattered jacket and pointed a vicious looking scythe towards us. ‘You stay right there,’ he said as firmly as he could, but I could see fear in his eyes. ‘You just stay there while we get the bailiff.’ He turned to one of the others. ‘Ned, go get him – tell him they’re the ones he told us about – foreign people. Quick.’
Van whispered to me, ‘Do we rush them? They’re not up to much.’
‘No, let’s see what this bailiff person has to say before we do anything,’ I said. ‘It seems as though they’ve been expecting us.’
The Village
-5-
The bailiff didn’t appear. More men armed with sticks and one with a long bow came up the track. There were too many of them. They all stared at us, probably not because of the way we were dressed. They were all wearing pretty much the same things as us, rough woollen smocks and clothes like the ones we’d found in the deserted village. But no one had shaved heads like the Peta twins, or nice hair like Mary, or the weird wild-eyed look of me and Jen. We were worth staring at.
Van gave a groan, as if to say we were too late and why had I waited. We should have made off before the rest arrived. But I wanted to find out more, if we were stuck here then we were going to need their help.
‘Bailiff says to put them in the barn. Along with the Townsends.’ The one called Ned spoke when he returned. ‘And he says we shouldn’t talk to them.’
Now I thought Van was right. We should have done something. More villagers had circled round and stood leaning against the gate. We were trapped.
‘At least these people are alive,’ said Mary.
‘Do what they say, for now.’ I looked at Jenna, she nodded.
The villagers kept their sticks and scythes in front of them as they poked us down the track. Jenna tried to ask questions but the men didn’t reply. We passed more houses, more low stone buildings with thatched roofs and tiny openings for windows. Smoke wafted through holes in the thatch. We didn’t go near the larger building, the house where I thought the bailiff must live.
The barn stood at the lower end of the village. It needed repairs. Taller than most of the other houses but the roof was falling apart. Beyond the barn, on an open area of grass, a small fire smoked from a deep pit. I couldn’t see what was burning.
One of men opened the huge barn door. We were poked and pushed into the dark and gloomy building. The door shut with a bang.
The barn had one small window on one side with heavy wooden bars and another narrow slit opening set in the stone wall. Neither made the barn less gloomy. More light came from holes in the thatched roof.
Dampness oozed from the stone walls onto the mud floor. A foul stench came from the far end. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I made out three people huddled together on a pile of rotting straw. The smell seemed to be coming from them. Were these the Townsends?
Pale, scared faces, hiding in the shadows. Two of them were only kids – a girl and a boy – and there was a woman, who had to be their mother.
‘Oh no,’ muttered Mary as she saw the children.
‘What?’ I asked, but Mary just shook her head.
‘You got the pestilence?’ the woman called weakly, with her arms around the children. ‘Or have you been sent to kill us?’
Mary and Jack had their hands out, stopping us from getting closer. The woman and her children weren’t moving.
‘It’s the Black Death,’ Jack said slowly. ‘We thought it might be, but it’s too awful.’
‘The black what?’ I prodded him. ‘What’s this Black Death thing?’
‘The plague, the pestilence, whatever,’ Mary explained. ‘We’ve arrived here at the worst time ever, this plague wiped out nearly half of the people in the country.’
‘Where are you from?’ the woman called again and pulled the children closer to her.
‘We’re not here to hurt you,’ Mary said softly.
‘Don’t look right.’ She waved a bony hand at us. Her movement made her wince, her face creased with pain. ‘You don’t look right. You don’t speak right.’
‘We’re from Poland,’ Van said and turned away with a grin.
‘Foreign then?’ The woman seemed to accept that and fell back as though exhausted.
‘Did Poland exist at the time of the Black Death?’ I wasn’t sure if Jack was asking me. I hope he wasn’t expecting an answer because he didn’t get one. I had other things on my mind – not that I knew anything about Poland.
‘This is all to do with the Tregarthurs,’ Jenna interrupted my thoughts.
‘I still see her in my dreams,’ I said. She haunted me most nights; those staring eyes, her wild hair, and always so angry. I felt she knew what had happened and blamed me for destroying her plans, her promise.
Jenna agreed. ‘She’s brought us here – her way of getting revenge. We didn’t do what she wanted. So she’s going to see us die.’
‘She set us up when we saw her in the nursing home,’ Jack replied.
‘If you hadn’t come back …’ Jenna started to say.
‘Alvin’s mum led the attack,’ Jack said with anger in his voice. ‘You didn’t need us. She saved Alvin. You all could have escaped.’
‘Yes, and …’ Mary was interrupted.
‘Hey, it’s nice to hear this old story, but I think you’ve said we’re in the middle of a disaster here.’ Van raised his voice to stop Mary starting again. ‘Time for a plan?’ he asked.
I had so many questions, about Mum and about Miss Tregarthur. But Van was right again, we needed to do something.
‘Yes, what we do,’ Kan chopped in.
‘How do we stop getting this plague thing?’ said Van.
‘I don’t think you can.’ Jack sounded hopeless. ‘Everybody just dies.’
‘Then we have to get out of here.’ Van went over to the barred window and pulled against the wooden bars. ‘That’s no good.’ He looked upwards. ‘Need to find some way to get up to the roof and get away.’
Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 4
